Sword Arts World
by Alaaran
Summary: AU from Aincrad onwards. Two months after the events of the cursed death game known as Sword Art Online, the hero Kirito awakes to find himself once more trapped within that world. On the mysterious level known only as X, The Black Swordsman is once more thrown into the fray, for the sake of his people,and all others trapped within this world. Eventual Kirito/Lyfa/Asuna pairing
1. Chapter 1: Return Remastered

Chapter 1: Return Remastered

Disclaimer: I own nothing, owning things is not something that I do, it just isn't. Sword Art Online is a thing, and I don't own things, ergo, I do not own Sword Art Online.

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His teeth clenched together, and the blade of his newfound sword sparked lightly from the contact of steel on steel. A sidestep, a whirl, and a cry of pain sounded the monster's death as he swiped his blade along its length, dragging the deadly tip over its virtual flesh, and dissolving it's being into a swathe of sparks.

The weight of the weapon was familiar in his grasp, if slightly off from his well-remembered Elucidator, but it served him well enough for the moment, and that was what mattered at this point. Another step forth as the Black Swordsman wheeled through yet another foe sent bits sparkling about, and tiny windows detailing his earnings spinning about the famed her of SAO.

It had been two months since he had escaped that cursed death game, along with the six thousand players left alive.

All except for one. His wife in Aincrad, and the girl he had promised to become the boyfriend of once they escaped, Yuuki Asuna, had not awakened. She was alive, as he had verified with the hospital and her family, but her body remained comatose, mind pulled under in whatever had become of SAO, after what he had assumed to be its destruction upon the death of Kayaba Akihiko.

So, the question remained, ringing in his mind even as his body twisted and turned, the unfamiliar, and yet so welcome blade in his hand moving thoughtless to bring to an end all those who opposed he, the undisputed master of swords.

The interface, the messages, even the manner in which mobs died all of them spoke to one thing and one thing only. This was SAO, Sword Art Online. This was the Death Game.

And yet, he did not recognize this landscape, the ever-present shape of the tower did not loom in the distance, nor did the indicator in the bottom right of his vision display to him the level upon which he now stood, instead it simply read "X"

Biting back the growl which rose in his throat, Kirito moved to swing his blade up, sheathing the weapon, upon inspection a rather generic longsword, if still his preferred black.

Still, the weapon had served him well enough for the moment, and it was with a mild satisfaction that he swiped his hand across the air before him, shuffling quickly through his stats, confirming what he had at once hoped for, and feared with all his being.

"Name: Kirito" it read, followed by a list of his statistics, most of them maxed out at 1000, a likely result of his defeat of Heathcliff. In his experience, games which allowed one to continue playing after the final boss was defeated tended to offer hefty rewards for such an achievement.

Nodding to himself then, he moved to turn his gaze upwards from the now clear ground before him, taking in for the first time since he awoke, the landscape around him for more than the fact that it did not contain the obvious sights which it should.

The sky was bright and blue, and the area around him was, to sum it up, beautiful. The trees and grass were a soft but vibrant green, and the mountains in the distance dusted with a soft coating of snow.

Were he forced to; he would have compared the view to that picture of the Swiss Alps his cousin, no. His sister, he corrected himself for what was not the first time in the past weeks. That picture of the Swiss Alps his little sister had shown him in one of her magazines.

Sighing, he pushed the thought away as his hands rose up to brush off the surface of his dragon leather cloak, thankful for the fact that at least his favorite garment had somehow survived the, whatever it was that had returned him to this place.

Kirito could not remember a single incident in which he had laid hand upon a NerveGear since he awoke besides the times he visited Asuna in the hospital, and when he himself had awoken, and yet here he was, unmistakable returned to the world of death and battle which had claimed two years of his life.

A moment of slow, crushing silence consumed his being, before as if to quell the emptiness, a soft pinging rung through his ears, and drew his attention down, to where a small, orange circle hung before him. "A message?" He breathed out disbelievingly, even as his hand rose upwards, moving to tap a single finger upon the blue circle of acceptance, bringing to bear before him the short, damning words of one of his closest friends.

Tsuboi Ryoutarou, better known as Klein was a twenty-four year old, and a fellow Japanese. The Guild Leader of Fuurinkazan, Klein had become famous not only for his role as a front-line clearer, but for his unprecedented feat of surviving the two years within the Death Game of SAO without losing a single member of his guild, each of them a real life acquaintance and close friend of his.

"Hey, Kirito!" The message began, the falsified sincerity drawing a frown to the Black Swordsman's lips, he knew Klein, and in the two years that they had risked their lives at each other's sides, Klein had only indulged in such levity in times of utmost danger, or, as the self-styled samurai had himself put it. 'When shit be most fucked.'

'Do you have any idea what's going on, man?' Klein continued, his impeccable grammar drawing another pang of worry in Kirito's gut, a rather abysmal sense of spelling had been yet another indulgence he had noted in his friend, something which yet again had only disappeared in times when the message carried held with it a desperate urgency.

Quickly typing out a response in the negative, Kirito tapped the blue circle to send his notifier of unknowing out, turning his gaze back upwards then, as the air before him shimmered, another of the nondescript, wholly unthreatening beasts spawning into place before him.

His hand rising up from where the message had once hung, Kirito curled his fingers around the blade's grip, before lunging forth, a trail of blue signaling the beast's demise, as Kirito shot off, his hands dancing around him, re-sheathing his blade and opening his player interface, pulling open a diagram of the surrounding area, or at least what he had managed to make of it so far, his discovery as such amounting to the small area around where he had awoken, and the blank, blue-crisscross of the surrounding area, simply waiting to be discovered.

He cared little for the prospect of mapping in that moment though, as his eyes focused upon the pinging dot of his sole visible friend's location.

Free hand spinning through the short list he had compiled, his heart sank in his chest along with whatever hopes he had held at the text which read "Asuna: Offline." However, he pushed himself in that moment onwards, for as great as his grief may have been, he knew in the pit of his chest that his chances of finding Asuna so easily were slim at best, and that he would simply have to give finding her his all.

With that, Kirito pushed another burst of strength into his legs, pushing himself over hill and around tree trunks, tearing past various mobs, until he finally reached his destination, skidding to a halt which sent his black coat aflutter, his hair waving wildly every which way.

Across from the black-haired, black-garbed swordsman sat a rather crimson-fellow, his brick-red hair had grown longer, spiked locks falling back to reach halfway down his neck, and his armor had disappeared, leaving the man sitting there in what approximated a simple Gi and Hakama mix, his ever-present katana resting upon his folded knees.

"Neeeehhh." Klein began as Kirito blurred into existence before him, one hand rising up to flick at the tip of his nose. "I guess I wasn't the only one to lose some of my loot when I woke up here." He began, only to then hop down from the stump on which he had sat, sheathed sword in hand, tapping the hilt against his shoulder. "But, that's just it." He concluded with a groan, both shoulders rising along with his hands in a gesture akin to asking 'now what?' "Where is here? It looks and feels like SAO, but, it doesn't seem like Aincrad. More, open."

Nodding lightly to this, Kirito's arms rose to cross over his chest as he looked over his old friend, Klein had grown since that day two years ago when he got on his knees and begged him for aid in learning the game. A smile spread cross the Black Swordsman's lips at the thought, only to be quelled by the grave reminder of their current situation.

Straightening fully, Kirito glanced about once, before turning his gaze again to the leader of Furinkazan. "I don't think we're in SAO." He breathed out, lips pursing together for a moment, before he continued. "It feels similar, I'm guessing we're in another game, based off of SAO's interface."

Nodding once to this, Klein raised a hand to his chin, stroking at the scruffy extension of his jaw pensively. Letting out a light hum, Klein then brought his hand down in a fist, pressing into the open palm of its brother. "Alright then." We might as well get to it, and see if we can find anyone else trapped here.

Letting out a soft 'hmmph' of agreement, Kirito raised his hand to comfortingly grasp the haft of his blade, only to stop halfway, a shudder running through his form before, with a lurch of movement, the air around the two flashed red, before dissolving into a spray of pixels, clearing away to reveal the two once more, scattered amongst a crowd of people, seemingly equally confused.

Disarray ran through the crowd, gathered into the center of this seeming town, as shrieks of terror split from those without gear, and the wary warriors of the former frontlines grasped at what equipment they had kept, trading glances throughout the crowd to those faces they recognized. The message of the series of nods was obvious, and at the same time utterly horrifying.

They had returned, and there was no escape in sight.

"Welcome." intoned a voice all-too familiar, drawing a snarl to Kirito's throat, and his gaze towards the skies above.

As he did so, a great shadow crossed over the crowd, heralded by the arrival of a massive, hulking shape, as if the entirety of a landmass had singularly tugged itself from the ground, and now hung above them.

Which, upon closer inspection, it became terrifyingly apparent that such a thing was exactly what had occurred.

Whatever cries of shock had begun to rise in the throats of the survivors of the two year death game were silenced however by the screaming roar of crimson which shot down from the massive shape, crashing into the open center of the crowd, swathes of that self-same ruby red energy licking about, searing at the ground, and assuring that all kept their distance.

As the energy died down, the silhouette of a figure within faded into view, carrying with it a visage all too familiar.

Heathcliff. Shock painted across his features, Kirito stumbled back a step from the form of his deadliest enemy, clad in his crimson armor as he stood atop a newly appeared podium, his hands rising as if in greeting to his captives. "Welcome!" He cried happily out, waving to them. "To the expansion of Twenty Twenty-Two's best selling game, Sword Art Online."

His eager smile seemingly undeterred by the cries of shock and horror, Heathcliff dropped into a low bow, before rising once more, and sweeping his arms out to the side. "Welcome, my friends, to Sword Arts World! A new land to conquer spanning multiple continents! New equipment! New skills! An immersive, plot-based storyline with new bosses!" Heathcliff eagerly cried out, uncaring still to the screams of those below, as his voice boomed out above them.

"There is much more as well, but that's for you to find out. However, there is one last feature, I'm sure you'll all love." The man continued, his voice growing soft then, and his lips curling into a cruel smirk, before he spoke once more. "A resurrection system, so as not to mirror the horrible, horrible losses of our original release. Though, I will warn that, upon death, all items carried and not equipped or bound will be dropped, and become lootable by all players."

With that, Heathcliff turned, crimson cloak flowing about him, his final words echoing through the town. "I will await you in the Sanguine Empire, should you seek to once more leave this game. As the final boss, of course."

And with that, Heathcliff was gone in a flash of light, leaving a silenced, speechless crowd in the wake of a man who should by all rights have been dead.

Turning then, Kirito moved to push through the shocked crowds, joined in his movements by a good deal of the more assertive clearers, working their way through the streets, until the makeshift group had reached the outskirts of the town, and gathered together.

His gaze dancing about, Kirito's heart sunk once more at the lack of Asuna's presence, sinking into his hunched shoulders, and pulling back into the mass of the group, as Klein pushed himself to the front.

The self-made samurai glanced about, looking over the group, his lips turning up into their trademark grin upon espying each of his friends, heartened by their presence.

"Alright." He began, bringing a fist up to punch into his open palm. "I think that that bastard Heathcliff made his point clear enough, we're going to need to level up, clear the bosses, and then kill him if we want to escape."

Slow murmurings passed through the group of players, nods of agreement, and musing thoughts, until; finally, one of them, a former Knight of the Blood Oath by his garb, spoke up. "That's true, and, if what he says is true, and we can't die in real life from dying in here, then, we should be able to scout out bosses, and learn their strategies. So, it's very likely that they'll be a lot harder to get right. Maybe not stronger and more deadly with each hit, but with more moves that will kill us without positioning right, like in other MMOs."

Nodding pensively, Klein moved to scratch faintly at his chin, before chuckling lightly to himself. "Well, in that case, I guess we ought to get to leveling, so that we can find the first boss."

Nodding to himself, Klein raised one hand, gathering the members of his guild to himself, before glancing over his shoulder. "I'd suggest that the Knights of the Blood sort out their leadership, you're some of our best players, and I'd hate not to have you fighting at my side."

Swinging his hand down then, the oriental warriors of Furinkazan darted off, drawing whatever weapons they either still held, or had been gifted upon their return to this world, followed soon after by each of the groups and guilds, each making their way in a slightly differing direction, so as not to interfere with one another's farming.

Shocked speechless for a short moment, Kirito stood there, struggling to find belief that they had acclimated so well, and had regrouped so fast, only for his surprise to fade into a smile, as he moved to grasp his own weapon, turning down one of the untaken paths, and beginning his own departure.

After all, he had less than an hour ago displayed the same degree of determination in his need to find Asuna, a desire which still burnt in his chest.

The leveling passed quickly; it always had for him in this world, if perhaps not for others. Perhaps it was due to him being a Beater, or perhaps it was something else, it mattered little though, for at that moment, he could not be bothered to consider those thoughts, far too busy with eviscerating whatever mobs came within his path, his single blade hacking through them at a pace which would have most likely given any other player pause.

It was good to be a solo player. And it was an hour or four into this grinding that the first major event since the clearers and he had split apart to begin their quest.

The event came in the form of a message, one that he had not expected, though by many means most likely should have. 'Kirito-Kun!' it began, drawing a small smile to his lips, only a few people had earned the right to call him that, and he would be glad for the presence of any of them. "I'm guessing that you could use a new sword or two? I've been doing some questioning, and from what I gathered, Heathcliff let each person keep one equippable, which for you seems to have been that dragon leather piece of yours."

Kirito paused for a moment at this, he had not until now thought of the meaning of his missing swords beyond lamenting the lack of their presence, and such widespread information could be a life-saver. Nodding to his line of thought, Kirito moved to hastily type out a message for Klein, before turning back to the one he had received. "I've managed to get my hands on a few pieces of higher-level metal from players who didn't want or need them, and I can't think of someone more deserving of them than you! 3 Lisbeth-Chan."

His smile still firmly in place at the thought of his personal smith, Kirito hefted his current weapon in one hand, weighing it lightly, before nodding to himself. This thing couldn't hold a candle to Lisbeth's work.

Turning back towards the way he had come, Kirito started a sedate walk back to town. He was at least a good ten levels above everyone else in the game thanks to his having defeated Heathcliff, and the few missed minutes of grinding couldn't possibly set him back by more than a fifth of one of those.

Soon enough, Kirito found himself back in the expansion's seeming starting town, a hasty addition of Lisbeth to his now growing friends list serving to help him in locating the smith who he had always before been able to find simply by visiting her shop.

Reaching the shop which the map reported her to have situated herself within, Kirito moved to knock once, before pushing the wooden mass inwards, strolling in, his lips once more being tugged at the edges by the faintest hints of a smile as he took in the pink-haired profile of the smith, already pounding away at a block of metal which he dimly remembered as 'Daemonite', a commodity that had only been discovered in the dungeon of the seventy fourth level if his memory served.

Letting out a low whistle of approval, Kirito moved to settle himself down within a seat across from her, returning the faint smirk she shot him as she worked. "How'd you manage to get your hands on that?" He breathed out disbelievingly, knowing at least personally that he had never laid hands upon such an item, and that if Asuna had, then he would have seen it in their shared item storage.

"That would be telling, Kirito-Kun." Came the rosette's teasing response, as with a final strike, the mass of metal before her shone for a moment, before it slimmed, lengthening and smoothing out into the shape of a single handed, straight bladed sword. She knew him too well.

Hefting the item, an approving 'ooo' escaped the Smith's lips, its stats flashing into existence before her, and drawing a smile from her "Not a matching set, but their weights are similar enough, and the stats are good." She quipped, before reaching down beneath the anvil, and producing a second weapon of similar length and shape. Tossing the two to him, her arms moved then to cross over her chest proudly, her smugness only growing as the Black Swordsman effortlessly caught the two, moving to cross them over his back, sheathes hooking into place with a flick of his wrist across the user interface.

"Thanks." He breathed out, only to be silenced as Lisbeth moved, taking a step forwards, and grabbing at his chin, lifting his gaze up from the interface to meet her own. "You find her." The smith bit out, tears beginning to well up in her eyes, as she moved to repeat herself. "You find Asuna, and you keep her safe, whatever you do, please." She fell silent for a moment, her arm falling to her side, and its sister moving to hold her upper arm weakly. "I don't know what I'd do, if something happened to her, and with her missing from my friends list, and my messages not getting through." She began, only to be silenced by Kirito, who moved to gently embrace her, his arms enwrapping her shoulders, and holding her there, ceasing her shaking.

"Of course I'll find her." He breathed out, before pulling himself from the now stilled Lisbeth, moving to continue past her, towards the door. "You never had to ask." He finished, before slipping out of the door, leaving Lisbeth standing there, pink dyed locks shadowing her flushed cheeks with a blush that had gone on unseen.

As he exited the shop, Kirito's hand moved upwards, dancing across the opened user interface, taking in the two names which now hung before him.

The first of the two was the sword he had watched the creation of, a longsword as he had guessed, going by the name of Black Tongue, a fitting name upon closer inspection of the weapon, Drawing the sword into his right hand, he then flipped to the second, a brow arching at the name of the weapon. "Autumn Sky?" He read out, before shrugging off the rather out of place name in comparison to those he had encountered in the past on SAO.

Glancing down to the stats, his eyes widened for a moment, threatening to bulge out of their sockets.

This was insane, he had never seen an item with powers like this one, and he suddenly felt somehow smaller. Sure Black Tongue had outstripped his Elucidator and Dark Repulser, just as a level seventy four item had the right to. He had loved those two blades, but even he had to admit that they had reached their limits of reinforcement. This weapon however, just from holding it on his back it was as if he was diminished. "Is this, the power of items from Sword Arts World?" He breathed out, looking it over. "This was forged from a new metal in the expansion, it has to have been." Nodding to himself at this line of logic, Kirito moved to gently grasp the hilt of the blade, drawing it forth, and blinking once.

The weight was right in his hand, and a couple of swings reassured him that yes, it still handled just as he was used to with his longswords, but Kirito had not been expecting to see anyone but Klein toting a katana, it had been somewhat of a defining feature for the samurai guild leader.

Shrugging the thought off, Kirito moved to sheathe the weapon once more. He would simply have to practice with the blade on some mobs before he fought anything seriously, it was already bound to him, and he would never be one to deny a friend, especially not one so kind as to yet again forge for him such a powerful weapon for free.

Autumn Sky handled well, he decided after the first forty kills. It's handle felt at once smooth and sure in his grasp, and it's blade tore through the mobs like tissue paper.

Sure, Black Tongue alone was a sight to behold, but it paled in comparison to his newest acquisition, a feat that a group of Knights of Blood had not failed to notice when he intersected with them during his grinding, the trio exchanging friendly words with their former member and savior, before continuing on their way.

"As good as always." He remembered the leader of them commenting upon witnessing the solo player that was the Black Swordsman as he tore through a pack of NPC bandits, pixels parting before him.

The humanoid monsters were a new facet to the expansion that he had only recently encountered, and his first time killing them had been rather unsettling for the Black Swordsman, however, the red crystals above their heads, and their jerky, almost mechanical movements betrayed their nature.

The mobs he had encountered earlier in the day, and those that he had fought in the original game had moved much smoother, and he could only guess that the ones he currently faced had been so programmed so as not to unsettle players, a rather foreign concept to the Heathcliff he knew, but one that he was far from disapproving of.


	2. Chapter 2: Reunion Retouched

Chapter 2: Reunion Retouched

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It had been a week since Kirito had awoken once more in the world of Sword Art Online, now known as Sword Arts World, and he had acclimated just as quickly to it as he had the first time he was trapped here, even more quickly in fact, as had the grand majority of his fellows Clearers.

Surprisingly, or at least to him, had come the change in those players who had before failed to muster the courage to leave their homes and join the clearers in leveling during their two-year stay in the death game.

Now though with the discovery of a downwards portal in the place where Heathcliff once stood, many of these former town-players had travelled down to the lower levels, grinding through them as one would in a normal MMO.

His train of thought was derailed however, as the familiar pinging of a message heralded the arrival of the grey rectangle before him, which Kirito then moved to answer from his position atop a small rock outcropping, Autumn Sky and Black Tongue hanging loose in his grasp, still drawn from the grinding he had thrown himself into during his musings.

Expanding outwards into the textual contents, Kirito graced the message with a quick once over, his lips were parting, and eyes widening faintly at the words within.

Klein and the rest of the clearers had found the first dungeon, a 'Goblin Kingdom' in the hills just to the north.

Moving to sheathe his blades as he shut the message after reciting the coordinates Klein had given him, Kirito turned towards the location, and nodding once to himself.

Somewhere in this game was Asuna, she had to be. And he was going to find her, just like he promised, be it in the real world or back here in Kayaba Akihiko's world.

Nodding once to reaffirm his convictions, Kirito's legs moved, pushing him forwards at a pace few other players could match, and propelling him forth, towards the first of this new world's challenges.

The run took longer than he had expected, but it was only a matter of time before Kirito arrived, coming to a halt on the edge of a crowd of tents he could have sworn had not been there the first time he passed by this area.

One of the figures within the camp nearing, his muscles tensed faintly, whiplashing back from their slow loosening upon his stop.

Oh yes, he recognized that red and white cloak all too well. Noting the battle-ready stance of the Black Swordsman, the approaching clearer raised his hands placatingly, a weak chuckle escaping his lips.

"Heh." Came the rather awkward chuckle as the KoB member moved to offer a shrug. "Don't worry, Kirito-Sama. I was there when you fought Heathcliff, I saw what happened."

Nodding slowly, Kirito moved to take the hand the taller player then offered, giving it a short but firm shake, and moving to push on past him, into the camp.

Jogging after him, the player fell into step, a rather dull brown ponytail that Kirito had earlier failed to notice bouncing with each step. "The name's Vincento" He piped up lightly, moving to offer his hand yet again to the black-cloaked male, who's only response, came in the form of a slow, deliberate stare that sent the seemingly eager Knight quailing back a step.

Continuing on, Kirito moved towards the largest of the unfamiliar tents, slipping inside only to be greeted by a sea of familiar faces, and a series of welcoming calls.

Taking this time to shrink inwards himself, Kirito shuffled his feet faintly, before moving to take his place across from Klein, who had assumed the position of strike-force leader, if his seat at the head of their table meant anything.

Offering Kirito a nod and a smile, Klein then moved to begin, one hand coming around to trace a quick circle on the table, a copy of what looked to be a map resting there, expanding outwards to where the circle traced by the leader of Furinkazan took up its entirety.

Blinking once, Kirito leant inwards, before turning his gaze up to the grinning samurai. "It's blank." He deadpanned lightly, receiving a rather disbelieving "Eeeehhhh?" From the elder male, who moved to tap his finger once, twice, thrice on the mostly blank surface, black crisscrossed with blue to form the grid of the empty map.

Kirito glanced downwards once more, falling silent in embarrassment as his second, more in-depth look at the map revealed that it was not in fact entirely empty, the center of it in fact was filled in, a large, though rather empty blue circle, with a set of four gates leading out, into the uncharted territory within.

"We believe." Klein began rather theatrically, his arms raised as if to grasp at a pair of lights before them, and to claim them, for the good of all his fellows trapped here, within the world of Kayaba Akihiko. "That this dungeon, similar to the raids of eastern MMOs, has multiple bosses, before a final, harder boss with better loot."

A series of nods rippled out through the groups, followed soon after by Kirito, who raised one hand upwards to scratch faintly at his chin. "In that case, shouldn't we send a scouting group down each corridor, to be more efficient?"

Grinning still, Klein nodded, moving to bring his hands together in a rather sarcastic, but playful clap. "We're already a step ahead of you, Kirito. We were just waiting for you to arrive before we started." He quipped, before bringing one hand up to scratch lightly at his cheek, glancing aside from the shorter male.

Kirito's hands came down, clasping together in his lap as he arched a slow brow, as if to usher forth the awaited answer. Finally, Klein allowed a breath to escape his lips in the form of a sigh, turning his steady gaze back towards the Hero of this world.

"The men want you to take one of the routes." He stated, arms crossing over his chest, as he shot a rather dirty glance to his fellow clearers, before turning back to Kirito. "I know you prefer to go solo, so there isn't much I can do to stop you if you want to go, but be careful. You still owe me for that pizza."

For a long moment, Kirito was silent, his expression slowly falling, as if the realization of what Klein meant only then dawned upon him. "But." He began, moving to raise his hands as if to hurl allegations towards the mockingly serious samurai before, with a sigh, he moved to stand. "Pizza got it."

Moving to depart from the tent, Kirito paused for a short moment, glancing back to the assembled group. "I'll take the far right tunnel, Klein will know if I find anything important."

And with that, the Hero of Aincrad was gone from sight, his form once a silhouette in the shadow of the outside light now reduced to nothing more than a speck of shadow in the blinding outside, and then nothing.

The entrance to the dungeon was easy enough for Kirito to find, a fact that was on some level rather worrisome, if for nothing more than the fact that he should have, by all means, been able to locate it on his first pass through the area.

Whether or not he had found the gaping cave before mattered little then, paling in comparison to his current task, for a moment Kirito paused as he approached the entrance to the cave. The insides were a deep, dark black, a feature he had yet to encounter in this world. Taking a step forth, he immediately threw upwards his arms as a splash of light danced across his vision, dazing the swordsman for a moment, before fading.

Dropping his arms once more, the now faded surge of light revealed the cave comfortably alit, still holding a foreboding darkness do it, but not enough to fully impair his vision.

Striding forth, Kirito's hands flicked once, bringing his mismatched weapons to bear as he strode forth, into the grim depths of the Goblin Kingdom.

The first wave of mobs he encountered failed to prove much of a challenge for the swordsman who had bested the 'Invincible' Heathcliff, though their difficulty had still proven greater than those mobs encountered outside, as evidenced by a sliver of health that had been chipped away from his bar, and the thin, glowing red line that had traced along his cheek.

Normally such a wound would have closed by now, however his health had yet to drop further, and a quick check of his stats had proven that he was devoid of impairing effects, and so it was that Kirito had chosen to simply accept its presence as a new feature of this 'expansion', and continued on.

Whatever thoughts of simplicity he had held however soon faded, as the tunnel before him came to a shuddering halt, leaving in its wake a great, stone door.

A hand rising, the faintest of his touches sent a ripple of energy over the surface of the door, shimmering outwards, before the massive slabs moved to swing inwards, opening unto him the room within.

Blinking lightly, Kirito moved to lean inwards, glancing about, before taking a tentative step over the line of the door, leaving one foot without.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew that he should send a message to Klein, alerting him that he had located the position of one of the bosses. In that place, Kirito was a rational and sensible player, and he very nearly listened to that voice, halting then and there.

However, whatever measure of sensibility he held was quenched as the boss lurched itself into place. Based upon the location, and his knowledge of RPG conventions, Kirito could only guess that the mass of fur and muscle before him was a Bugbear, the largest and most brutish, if least intelligent of the goblinoids.

That however was not the thought that halted him in his tracks, and then tugged him forth. No, that moment came in the revealing of the bosses name, a simple enough concept, but one that tore at the very deepest depths of his being, and that destroyed any chance of Kirito pulling himself from that room.

'The Jailer' it read, and with that, Kirito leapt forth. Even if he knew that the chance of Asuna being kept here of all places was almost nonexistent, it was still far more than anything he had seen in this world, and the chance, even the slightest chance of finding his wife was more than enough to push him onwards.

His blades leapt into his hands, and Kirito's body surged forth, Black Tongue leaping out, stabbing out for the beast's leg.

There was a whoosh of air, and the horrid wrenching of his body as The Jailer struck, a before unnoticed Morningstar gleaming in its grasp, upraised from the strike that had just sent him hurtling across the room.

A groan escaping his lips, his eyes snapped open to the sight of that same Morningstar crushing down towards him. Rolling to the side, a wince ran through Kirito to the sight of the place where he had sat only months before now reduced to rubble.

Swinging up his swords, Kirito moved to lunge once more, his eyes trailing warily along the sphere of metal spikes which once again rocketed towards him. Upon its moment of impending arrival, he threw himself into a forwards roll, hurled bodily inside of the boss' range, Kirito sprung up, both blades snapping out, striking like snakes, and carving twin rivets into its legs.

His eyes darting upwards, the grim reality dawned upon him as their two sets of health bars lined up. His had been reduced almost halfway by its first strike, and the boss had barely noticed the gouges he made upon it, appearing more like scratches, in comparison to its size.

His eyes darting about in search of an escape route, Kirito espied a pair of doors, identical in appearance, situated on either side of the room.

His gaze was torn from them however as a jerk of the boss' leg hurled his body upwards, tumbling back.

Crumpling once more into the wall, Kirito's form dropped down from where it had impacted with the now splintered stone, the boss moving to approach his fallen form, its movements slow, lumbering.

For a moment, Kirito froze, overcome with the sudden realization that yes, this monster was a boss, and one scaled for his level. Not like the holiday boss Nicholas the Renegade, who he had sorely overpowered.

His mortality flashing before his eyes, memory of the recent days blurred, and Kirito moved to push himself from the wall, eyes wide, his teeth grit as his blades flashed for a moment, before becoming encased in the glow of a sword skill, and his body lurched forwards, whirling around the boss, and embedding in its pixelated flesh another pair of lines.

That however was simply an added bonus, tacked onto the main goal he had, hurling himself off, towards the closer of the two doors, which he promptly hurled open, refusing to wait for the system to take hold and open it for him, throwing himself through the newly found gap, and tumbling into a roll, picking himself slowly up afterwards.

He was going to have to notify Klein.

That thought was put on a sudden hold however as a cursory glance of his new location made one thing clear.

This was not the direction he had come from, as evidenced by the iron bars which lined the walls, blocking off from him a series of empty cages.

He was trapped in the prison, without a source of escape crystals. Groaning to himself, one hand swung upwards, fingers opening whilst his thumb held onto the hilt of his sword, smacking it and his palm against his forehead.

He'd managed to somehow run past the boss, into the room beyond it. Klein would never let him hear the end of it.

His newfound source of embarrassment and worry was halted however, by the sound of something he had not in the slightest expected.

A voice echoed through the dank hallway of cells, drawing his attention to the left, and a sight which caught his breath in his throat.

His moment of speechlessness was not joined by his actions however, as he moved, hands rising to sheathe his blades before grasping at the door of the rusty jail, wrenching it harshly outwards, the metal shattering in a manner that should not at all have been possible under the game mechanics, yet at the same time reminiscent of his earlier manhandling by The Jailer.

There was no mistaking the outline of the figure inside, and his legs carried him towards them regardless of whatever trap may have lay in waiting for him.

No, he banished the thought as he moved to drop to his knees by the smaller figure's side, a hand rising to brush away a lock of her raven black hair, so similar in color to his own, his body shaking faintly as he took in the face of the cousin and sister he had left behind so long ago, and only recently had begun to reconnect with.

But she couldn't be here, he murmured to himself, even as the reality of her presence lay before him, validated by the presence of a glistening green gem above her head, and a bar full of health which enwrapped the right side of her head.

"Onii-Chan?" Her voice echoed weakly out, cracking faintly as he gathered her up into his arms, squeezing her to him with a fierceness of emotion he would most likely have never admitted to, were it not for the absurdity of this situation.

Clutching her form against his own with one arm, a snap of the wrist of his free hand crushed the chains which had bound her there, shattering into pixels, as he moved to lift her upwards, eliciting a faint mewl from the girl, as he carried her from the dankness of the cell, into the relative cleanliness of the adjacent hall.

Moving to set her down, a luminescent blush danced across the Black Swordsman's features, as he took a quick step back.

Suguha set herself down with a gracefulness he could not find words to describe beyond uncharacteristic, before turning her gaze up to him, blinking once in confusion. "Onii-Chan?" She once more murmured, moving to take a step forwards, a hand rising to dance a fingertip along the edge of his ear. "But, you don't play ALO, and everyone's ears in ALO are pointed."

She mused lightly, retracting the hand, tapping at her twin twice, before bringing her hand back up, snapping once her fingers. "This is a dream! It must be!" she concluded, the movement sending her midnight black bob a-bouncing, the flash of hair before her eyes causing the girl's hands to fly up, grasping at the strands in seeming horror, as if the presence of the hair he had always remembered her bearing carried with it some awful news.

A long moment of fussing and tugging at the strands followed, before Suguha finally turned to the slightly taller Kirito, her voice escaping in a soft, shattered stutter "This isn't a dream, is it?" She breathed out, receiving a slow shake of her brother's head, the movement drawing both of her hands upwards. Palms crossing over her mouth, she gasped out in a shuddered lurch of speech "Then, this is" She began, only to be cut off by a nod from Kirito, who moved to take a step forwards, hands rising to gently take her wrists, tugging them downwards.

"This is Sword Art Online, Suguha." He confirmed her suspicions, before moving to once more pull her into his embrace, holding the girl as she shuddered, his free hand rising to rub gently at her back, before she finally managed to murmur out "Are we trapped, like you were?"

Nodding once to this, he responded with a whispered "Yeah." She began to shiver once more, only to quickly halt, at his next words. "But it won't be for long." He continued, his grip tightening faintly, squeezing her into his chest. "Because I'm going to beat Heathcliff again, so we can finally go home."

With that, he moved too slowly pull himself from her, his hands upon her shoulders, as he brought his gaze to meet her own. "Sugu." He breathed out, lips pursing into a thin line, before continuing "How did you get on here? And what is ALO?"

Eyes widening at the realization that he had heard her, Suguha glanced to the side, her face shining a bright, crimson red as she mumbled out "ALO is a game." Before, shrinking in on herself, she clenched shut her eyes, and cried out. "ALO is a VRMMORPG! I wanted to see the world you fell in love with! I tried to log on when I got home from school and ended up here!"

Taken aback, Kirito back-pedaled a single step, hit by the flow of information like a tidal wave that only after it finished began to slowly sink in. "You bought a NerveGear?" He breathed out, receiving a nod from the madly blushing girl.

Sighing faintly to this, Kirito then glanced back to the door he had entered from, murmuring "Sugu, can you fight?" He queried, receiving a nod, and an affirmative "Hmm!" from his cousin, as he moved into his second question. "Check your interface, what level are you?"

A moment of silence fell, before Suguha gasped out her response. "Level one hundred. But, I'm only in the mid-forties in ALO." She murmured faintly, disbelievingly, before a yelp became her next verbalization, as the purple and black katana that had formerly rested upon her brother and cousin's back suddenly found its place in her grasp.

"Take that." He breathed out, moving to whirl his remaining blade once, and it's sheathe empty upon his back, as he turned to the door. "There's a boss on the other side of that door, and it's the only path from here, back to the surface."

Nodding slowly, Suguha moved to place the sheathe at her side, drawing the weapon, and letting out a soft coo of approval at its appearance. "Uhm, Onii-Chan." She murmured, moving to poke at his back with her free hand. "Shouldn't we talk more, before we engage the boss?"

Her response however came in a faint grunt from Kirito, as he moved to step forth, placing a single hand upon the door. "I alerted a friend of mine while you were inspecting Autumn Sky. He's on his way from the opposite direction with his guild."

Nodding lightly, at a loss from this new, assertive personality of her brother, Suguha moved to take her place at his side as the door swung open, reaffirming her grip upon the blade, before halting momentarily. "You can't fly in SAO, can you?" She mused rather bitterly, receiving a nod from Kirito. "You can't use magic either."

Bemoaning the discovery, Suguha threw her hands into the air, as if to beg the question of why, before she once more lowered her blade, grumbling out "This fight just got a lot more complicated."

And with that, the two of them stepped forth, swords in hand, side by side, as the darkness before them parted, and the two sprang into action, each slipping into their respective stances, lunging forth, even as the air before them stirred, revealing the form of their monstrous foe.

His grip upon his now singular blade was firm, as was evident by the twin lines of shining red he and Suguha had carved along The Jailer's legs in their first pass. The boss' response came quickly and harshly, it's free hand slinging out to backhand the already wounded Kirito, drawing a resounding crack from his ribcage, and a strangled cry from Suguha, the katana-wielding girl skidding to a stop from where she had mimicked her brother's charge, eyes widening as the already depleted bar of sickly yellow which had rested beside him descended into the crimson red, before vanishing.

Her shock lasted only a moment though, soon replaced by rage, as the kendo practitioner's response turned violent, raising her sword in both hands as she had trained since she was a child, and slashing down, drawing a deep rivet in the boss' leg, and turning it from where it had moved to approach its battered prey.

Arm raising on high, The Jailer hefted its mighty Morningstar, a cry of rage escaping, as it moved to bring the weapon crushing downwards, an attack that a katana, while powerful in attack, was by no means made to defend.

However, as a cloud of dust rose from the impact site of the boss' crushing assault, it was not the singular sight of a depleting health bar that greeted Suguha as she so expected, but instead, the sight of a second healthbar, lined not with the solid block of green red or yellow to which she was accustomed, but an almost empty bar, containing within it an unmistakable sliver of black.

A shockwave of force washed over Suguha, her hands rising up to shield her face with a cry of surprise, as The Jailer's Morningstar hung above her, cracks running along its form, from where a blade of pure white had punctured into its side along the blade's length, pushing upwards against the massive creature's forearm, its pixelated muscles visibly straining against the strength factor, to crush the foe who it by all rights should have slain.

Slowly, a pair of glinting, golden eyes opened, and a soft, faintly curious voice escaped the lips of her brother as he stood there, all too much alive for the black bar which hung above him, slowly expanding to fill the space granted to it, to have justified. "Dark Repulser?" He whispered out, taking in the sight of the weapon which had been shattered in his final duel with Heathcliff.

There was not time for him to further question its presence however as his grip tightened upon the hilt of another weapon he had thought forever lost, the Elucidator at home in its master's hand, arcing upwards to join it's brother, and to fully shatter the weapon of the monster who had kept captive his sister, pushing upwards through the fracturing pixels, and slicing through the hand above, carving a wicked swathe from the boss' HP, and sending it staggering backwards, jerky movements attempting to compute the veritable slap in the face it's programming had been subjected to.

Neither the Elucidator nor the Dark Repulser held within their stats the capability to so damage a monster of its level, nor did the weapon of a boss have within its data the capability to be broken. And yet this player had just done both with the pair of old-world, under-leveled weapons which now rested firmly in the palms that it itself had slain less than a minute ago.

And yet there he stood, swords in hand, staring down the bugbear, that bar of deathly black hanging over his head like some dark omen. For a long moment The Jailer was silent, unmoving, it's AI struggling frantically to formulate a response to the unprecedented situation before it, before finally settling upon the option of 'Kill'.

It's features once more adapting a bloodthirsty snarl, The Jailer hurled itself forwards, the dungeon shaking around them as it charged, arms upraised to bring to bear its uninjured fist.

A fist which promptly continued along its path, shattering apart into a spray of lights, joined soon after by its body, leaving the Black Swordsman to stand there, his blades held out to the sides in wake of his killing strike, just behind where the boss had once stood.

Formerly shocked into silence by the revival of her brother, Suguha was spurred into movement as he promptly collapsed, the line of black which had replaced his health once more making way for his almost fully emptied out HP bar, a single speck of health left remaining, as close to the minimum one as she could approximate.

Scooping up the boy's fallen form, her hands moved to his cheeks, feeling for some form of warmth, some sign of life. Letting out a breath she had unknowingly held, Suguha squeezed his body against hers, and cried out, sobbing her brother's name into the crook of his neck.

The moment seemed to last for an eternity, his body pressed into her own, hanging barely onto the vestiges of life as the two blades he had wielded scattered once more into a shower of pixels, leaving behind them naught but the single blade of his Black Tongue. Before, finally, his body stirred, one hand rising up to gently take her cheek, pulling her form slowly from his, causing a surge of red to well up along her cheeks.

"Onii-Chan." She murmured out, before moving to once more launch herself into his chest, leaving the nearly dead hero of Aincrad laying there, his cousin and sister curled into his chest, slowly soaking the front of his shirt with her tears, the crimson speck of his HP bar flashing before his eyes, the both of them verifying his life, his survival in this world, and the people he had to protect.

Starting with the girl he had been forced to abandon two and a half years ago, and was now here, burrowing into his chest.


End file.
